Proposal Topic: Women’s contributions to early twentieth- century magazine culture 

Thesis Question: How have women contributed to the literary world of the early twentieth- century through the “Little Magazines” even though they were not seriously recognized by male writers?            

 The early twentieth century literary world was male dominated and because of this and the cultural biases which prevailed, women’s works though commendable, were not recognized or taken as seriously as men’s works. Many women used male pseudonyms to gain acceptance and many found other avenues to promote their work and the work of other emerging writers whether they were male or female. One of such avenues was “The Little magazine”.            

 I have always been interested in women’s writings since for a while many of their works have been neglected, forgotten, or ignored by many males who felt they were the only ones capable of producing serious writings. Also I was curious to know what contributions women made to small magazines since we didn’t talk much about that in class. So far I have realized that they had been publishers, editors and contributors to these magazines and most importantly they had published the work of many men and had established them in their career as writers. Two of such writers were James Joyce with his notable Ulysses and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Women did indeed play an important role in the little magazine culture.            

Questions I would answer in my paper:

1.       How important have small magazines been to the literary world of the early twentieth- century?

2.       What were the contributions of women to little magazines?

3.       How were the contributions of women to these magazines received by men and other women?

4.       What were some of the challenges faced by women involved with little magazines and how did they deal with these challenges?

5.       Why do I consider the contributions of women to the small magazines worth researching?